When everybody left the cafe Rainbow Dash walked home. After arriving at her house she made her way to her bedroom to take another shower. She then dressed in her pajamas, combed out her hair, and read a little. At 8:34 she came out of her bedroom into the kitchen and ate dinner at the dining table. She made small conversation with her parents, before eating quickly and telling them that she would head in for an early night. After making her way back into her room she said goodnight to her tortoise before shutting off her bedroom light and then laid in bed.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, she dreamt.
She dreamed that she was with AJ, holding hands with her at the cafe she was at hours before. They were by themselves, peering out the window. It was a little cloudy outside, and it was raining. From what Rainbow could see, it looked like Autumn. Applejack looked.. beautiful. She looked the same, but more glowy. She had dewy, honey colored skin, with light freckles on her cheeks and bright green eyes. Her blond hair was long but extremely smooth. She wore her hair as she always did, down, with her signature hat. Her lips were pretty, and soft, even though she had no lipstick on.
She continued to stare out the window, an expression of curiosity on her face. After Rainbow was done admiring her, she looked down at the hand she held across the table. AJ's hands were soft, like the rest of her features but somehow strong too, like she had a firm grip on Rainbow. Though Rainbow didn't mind, she just continued to smile at the sight of their hands holding each other. Rainbow soon felt as if she was being looked at, so she met her eyes in the direction she felt she was being stared at, and saw Applejack who was indeed looking at her and smiling aswell.
"Sugarcube? Would you mind if we left?" Apple asked while drawing a heart on the glass window. She then turned back to the Rainbow haired girl.
Rainbow grinned. "But it's raining? We'll get soaked." she said playfully.
"That's the fun part, Rainbow, come on. I'll show you." Applejack said as her smile grew wider.
Rainbow nodded, wondering what they would do. She scooted out of the booth and went to the other side politely offering her hand to the country girl like a gentlewoman. Applejack went along, looking up at Rainbow's eyes while she carefully placed her right hand in Rainbow's left delicately, while giggling. Before Rainbow could say anything else, Applejack went ahead of her, and pulled her along outside of the cafe doors. Rain already getting Applejack soaked, she laughed while she pulled Rainbow out into the empty street. They both chuckled as they felt their hands losing the grip of each other because of the rain.
"Isn't the rain just so darn pretty?" Applejack asked, looking up into the gray clouds while the rain splattered on her face.
"Yeah, it is." Rainbow said back, except she wasn't paying attention to the weather. She was paying attention to the prettiest girl in front of her.
Applejack looked to Rainbow who was staring at her in awe.
"What?" Applejack said curiously, while turning her head to the side.
"You're just so darn pretty." Rainbow said, intentionally repeating what AJ said about the rain.
"Am not." Applejack said back, smiling as she looked down to her wet jeans.
"You are, trust me AJ".
Out of shyness, Applejack took her hat off and poured out all the rain. She then placed it on Rainbow's wet hair, giggling slightly because of the confusion that was planted on Rainbow's face. Rainbow adjusted the hat on her head, before placing her hand on the back of Applejack's slightly knotted hair and pulling her closer, until soft lips met soft lips.
--
Rainbow Dash blinked slowly, feeling the cold air around her. She sat up, in a pitch black room, looking at the covers that were half off the bed she slept on.
Even in the dark, she could tell that she was smiling at the dream she woke up from. She rolled over on her stomach until she was facing one of the pillows on her bed and squeezed it tight, feeling something flutter in her stomach. That dream that she had, really pointed out how beautiful Applejack was.. and it made Rainbow feel, weird. She breathed deeply after a few seconds of the butterfly feeling, trying to regain her composure. 'Be chill Rainbow, be cool.' she thought to herself, why was she acting so strange, dreaming like this ? Over a crush? A silly little crush? It was so unlike her.
Rainbow knew she liked girls, even from the womb, hell everyone knew, or at least she thought everyone knew. But why now? Why, after years of being best friends with AJ why did she catch feelings now? Out of the blue?
Rainbow was too stubborn to realize that it wasn't out of the blue. Every hug Applejack had given Rainbow, she felt as if she was warm inside. Something that didn't happen with any of her other friends. Every time Applejack helped her up when she fell, or called her sugarcube, every playful shove, every competitive stare, or glance, or touch, led up to the moment when she finally grasped the concept of having feelings for her closest friend.
She sighed once again, turning on her back and looking up at her popcorn ceiling. After a minute or two, she looked to her right searching for her phone. Once she grabbed it, she checked the time. It was currently 2:23 am, not even close to 5 yet. She yawned, blinking hard to wake herself up a little, and stretched out on her bed.
After, she sat up and kicked her covers off, swung her feet to the side of her bed, and made her way towards her bathroom counter. She rubbed her eyes aggressively while bending down towards the faucet to wash her crust filled eyes. 'Gross,' she thought as she washed her face. She inhaled a breath of air while smelling her morning breath in the process, and made a disgusted expression. She then brushed her teeth, and pulled some of the loose hairs off her freshly washed face.
She sluggishly walked back towards her bed and laid back down, while unlocking her phone. She pressed the messages app and scrolled to the conversation thread between her and Applejack. After a minute of looking at the old conversations between them, she unexpectedly had a small adrenaline rush. Staring at the blank typing box for a minute, she thought of what to do.
Finally, she typed something out.
'Hey'. The message read, but right after sending it Rainbow regretted even thinking about texting AJ this late at night. 'It's almost 2: 30 am, and you send a message saying 'Hey'. 'C'mon Rainbow, that's so not awesome.' Rainbow thought to herself. She moved around on her bed, mentally beating herself up because of the message she sent impulsively. "Ughh, you are so embarrassingly lame." she mumbled, as she face palmed herself.
She placed her phone face down on her mattress out of embarrassment. The room was silent for a minute, before she heard a short buzz coming from beside her. She quickly reached for her phone, forgetting the lingering emotion of embarrassment that was present a few seconds prior.
She opened her phone, and clicked on the new message Applejack had sent, not knowing what it would say.
'Hey sugarcube it's a little late, something up?' AJ responded with.
Rainbow didn't let any time go to waste after she read that message, quickly typing something back.
'No, nothing's wrong. I just can't sleep. Did I wake you?' Rainbow's message read.
'Yeah but it's alright, are ya sick?' Applejack wrote back.
'Nope, I'm not sick, I didn't mean to wake you though, sorry.'
Minutes passed, Rainbow waited for a response. She was about to place her phone down and try to fall back asleep, but new messages came in.
'Hey sorry rainbow, ah fell asleep.'
AJ sent another a moment later.
'I'm awake now though, anything on your mind?'
Rainbow Dash froze. What now? "Er, okay.. I'll just.. mention the party,'' she mumbled, while typing out a message and clicking sent.
The message she went with said 'Just thinking about the party. Should I bring anything?'
Not even a second later, she got a response back.
'No, your company is jus' fine sugarcube.'
Rainbow replied with an 'Oh okay.'
She acted on an impulse and typed out,
'So, Applejack do you maybe.. like anybody?'
She stared at the message she just sent, not noticing how nervous she was while waiting for a response.
Several minutes passed, seven to be exact (Rainbow was keeping track). During those seven minutes Rainbow was a nervous wreck. 'Did she fall asleep again?' 'What if she wakes up to that message?' 'What if she brings it up in front of everybody?' She asked herself over and over, until she reminded herself why she shouldn't be worrying. She was awesome right? Who cares if she wakes up to the text in the morning, or brings it up. She'll just play it cool, act as if it was something she asked out of boredom.
Who was Rainbow kidding? Who was she trying to convince? She did care, she was just too tough to show it.
The message was read at 2:47 am.
Rainbow acted as if she couldn't care less, but a small part of her really did want to know the answer, and if staring at the screen was the only way to get it, then she'd have to stare at the screen.
She saw typing bubbles, and then a new message soon after.
'Ah might, but I'm not sure yet, do you got feelings for somebody Rainbow?'
Rainbow read the message three times before responding. She didn't want to say anything stupid, or admit that she had feelings for her yet.. so she went with a simple,
'I don't know yet either.' which was a complete lie. Applejack would have hated Rainbow lying if she knew, probably give her a sucker punch or roll her eyes, but she had to. She couldn't tell Applejack yet. What if it ruined everything? What if it made things off between them?
Adventurous and reckless Rainbow Dash who always jumped into situations before thinking was.. well.. thinking, overthinking.
She put her phone down to calm down a little, focusing on the dim light that was on her walls, and the shadows of objects, due to the light of the moon.
She didn't know how to feel, but she knew she hated the nervous feeling in her stomach.
After that, Rainbow didn't know what else to say. It seemed like the conversation died out, until she heard another couple buzzes come from her phone.
She picked up her phone slowly, glancing at the new messages.
'Hey Rainbow?'
Something about that message made Rainbow's heart skip a beat.
'I think I do like somebody.'
Rainbow's mouth hung in mild shock. She quickly typed the next word and hit sent.
'Who??'
The message was read. A couple of minutes passed. Rainbow saw three disappearing dots come and go a numerous amount of times. This made her nervous, but in a way, gave her a little hope.
Finally, a new message came from AJ.
' Rarity. I like Rarity.'
Rainbow Dash let out a short and small gasp, not knowing what to think. She read and reread the message over and over, at least five times before typing three words.
'Does she know?' In a matter of seconds, Applejack double-texted.
'Thought I lost you for a sec. sugar cube.'
'No, she doesn't know jus' yet.'
With trembling fingers, Rainbow typed out another message.
'Does she.. like you back?'
Eager for the response, she waited. The time on her phone read 2:52 am.
Applejack responded with 'Ahm not sure'.
Rainbow's heart felt like it cracked into little pieces. It was as if she could really see her heart, on the covers of her bed, having little chips and unfixable cracks all over itself, waiting to splinter even more. Her stomach dropped slightly, making her feel nauseous from the roller coaster of intense emotions she had felt during the conversation.
Those three words scared her so, so much. AJ liked someone else. Someone that wasn't her, but Rarity.
Rarity. Of course, it was Rarity. She was everything Rainbow Dash wasn't.
While her eyes stung slightly, she typed a new message.
'Good for you, AJ. I'm going to crash, I'm just so tired. Night.' she sent the message and shut her phone off before she could get a response.
As she lay down, she felt the pain swallow her whole.